For those few of you ( like me ) who had no idea what and where Singur was..here's a brief introduction.
Singur is a census town in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Singur railway station is 34 km from Howrah Station on theHowrah-Tarakeswar line.
In India , a Census town is one which has :
- A minimun population of 5,000 ;
- Atleast 75% of male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits ;
- and, A density of popualtion of atleast 400 persons per sq.km.
Something very inetersting that I came to know while finding out this little piece of information.. The demographics of the town suggest that Singur has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 59.5% with 81% male literacy and 71% female lietarcy. Mamta actually managed to fool such literate people. Some woman she is !! Makes me feel she could fool Obama, McCain & the people in the US elections.
The Deed's done.Tata's said its moving out.Its been saying that for the past 2 months.Buddha's been trying to make him stay just a lil longer to try and work out a compromise.But the "other woman" ( refer : Mamta Banerjee) just doesn't seem to budge. Beechari NANO ke peeche haath dho kar padi hai..
Now that makes me wonder..How did Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee manage to get Tata to Bengal? And how was Ratan Tata so easily seduced? Was Mamta Banerjee intentionally ignored?Left out of the deal?? She was definitely not paid her "dues" . Mamta was nowhere near to voicing her concerns for the farmers when the plant was being constructed.Only when the vendor park came to light did she finally wake up.
In Bengal, the scene was always a little different.Local politicains gained power by promising agricultural land to landless farmers , but given West Bengal's population density, the land holdings were small and the yeilds insufficient to sustain poor families. The shift from agricultural to industrial jobs provides an opportunity for earning a higher income.And industries create well paying jobs at a rate agriculture cannot match.
Most of the land acquired for the project was smooth and the land holders were satisfied with the compensation they received.A small number of absentee landlords, illiterate farmers and Trinamul Congress (... Mamta's party ) supporters refused to accept the compenstaion offered.Another point to bear in mind is that most of the land holders never bought the land in the first place.Agricultural land is doled out to party supporters by local hoodlums in the name of 'Land Reform'.
Tata has learnt that messing with the 'other woman' can get pretty nasty, and I am sure he has...becuase it always does get nasty.
Hey and doesn't this sound all very similar to the plot of that movie we once saw..'Pati , Patni or Woh'... we know who the "Woh' was at Singur...but who was the Pati and who was the Patni...??..Ill need to figure that out too..pretty soon.
